It is a great pleasure for us to dedicate this issue of the Moscow
Mathematical Journal, and the two subsequent ones, to Yuri Ivanovich Manin
on the occasion of his 65th birthday.

It is unnecessary to present Yu. I. Manin as a
mathematician, and in any case this cannot be done in a short dedication. The
variety of papers presented in these issues reflects the diversity of his
mathematical interests. His research is extremely broad and is characterized by
special attention to interrelations of different branches of science, yet it
clearly has two principal centers: the meeting point of number theory and
algebraic geometry, and that of algebra and physics.
1

Manin's impact exceeds that of his own research results. His books on
algebraic geometry, K-theory, cubic forms, linear algebra, homological
algebra, mathematical logic, number theory, gauge fields, elementary
particles, quantum cohomology are widely read. The number and quality of his
students, the influence of his knowledge and ideas, his enticing lecturing
style, the broadness of his intellect, his agreeable personality, all this
forms a unique image of a scientist and scholar whom we admire. The
complete list of mathematicians regarding him as their teacher can hardly
be cited. 2

His interests beyond mathematics are also extremely varied. Manin has published
research and expository papers in literature, linguistics, glotto-genesis,
mythology, semiotics, physics, history of culture, and philosophy of
science. The example he set for those around him was not that of a monomaniac
mathematician, but of a deep scholar with wide interests, for whom penetration
into the mystery of knowledge is much more important than professional success.

When the famous Russian writers, the Strugatski brothers, portrayed a
mathematician as a hero of one of their novels, the
portrait  recognizably  was that of Yu. I. Manin.

We congratulate Yuri Ivanovich Manin with his 65th birthday and heartily wish him
many happy returns of the day.

V. Ginzburg, Yu. Ilyashenko, M. Tsfasman, S. Vlăduț.

1
To list some fields he developed, at least the following come to mind: